Nitric acid is a strong oxidizing agent that is colorless and highly corrosive. It is produced industrially via the Ostwald process, which involves the oxidation of ammonia to nitric oxide using a platinum catalyst and air, followed by the oxidation of nitric oxide to nitrogen dioxide and its absorption in water to form nitric acid. Nitric acid has a variety of uses including as a fertilizer component and nitrating agent for explosives. Hydrochloric acid is also a strong corrosive acid that is produced from chlorination byproducts or by reacting metallic chlorides with sulfuric acid. It is used in a variety of industrial processes.

2. Nitric Acid
Muhammad Usama Akram
B1F17BSCH0078

3. Introduction
 Nitric acid is a strong mineral acid. It is a mono-basic acid.
 It is a strong oxidizing agent and can oxidize metals and
nonmetals easily.
 Nitric acid (HNO3) is a colorless liquid that is used in the
manufacture of inorganic and organic nitrates and nitro
compounds for fertilizers, dye intermediates, explosives, and
many different organic chemicals.

4. Properties
 HNO3 is usually a fuming liquid.
 It is freely miscible with water.
 It freezes to a snow white solid at -46 C.
 It is a colorless volatile liquid.
 It has a pungent smell.
 Its specific gravity at 15 C is 1.53.

5. Uses
 As a starting material in the manufacture of nitrogen
fertilizers such as ammonium nitrate & ammonium etc. Large
amounts are reacted with ammonia to yield ammonium
nitrate.
 As a nitrating agent in the preparation of explosives such as
TNT, ammonium picrate (Dunnite)
 It is commonly used in science laboratories at schools for
experimenting when specifically testing for chloride.

6. Manufacturing

7. Methods
 INDUSTRIALLY NITRIC ACID IS PREPARED BY
FOLLOWING 3 METHODS:
 CHILE SALTPETRE METHOD BY NANO3
 BRIKLAND EYDE’S METHOD BY USING AIR
 OSTWALD’S METHOD

8. OSTWALD’S METHOD
Principle
 NH3 is oxidized into NO by air at 800 C in presence of Pt
(Platinum)catalyst with 10% Rh content.
 Materials used:
 Ammonia gas
 Water
 Oxygen gas

9. PROCESS
 The conversion of ammonia into nitric acid in this process is
done through the following steps:
 Step1
 Oxidation of ammonia to nitric oxide
 Ammonia is oxidized by air in the presence of Pt catalyst at
800°C to give nitric oxide.
4NH3 + 5O2 ——–> 4NO + 6H2O
 Heat liberated maintains the temperature of the catalyst.

10. Cont.
 Step 2
 Oxidation of NO to NO2
 The nitric oxide is oxidized by air at temperature below
100°C, to give nitrogen dioxide (NO2)
2NO + O2 ——> 2NO2

11. Cont.
 Step 3
 Formation of nitric acid
 Nitrogen dioxide is then converted to nitric acid by absorbing
NO2 in water, in the presence of air.
3NO2 + H2O ——> 2HNO3 + NO

13. Hydrochloric Acid

14. Introduction
 Hydrochloric acid is a clear, colorless, highly pungent solution of
hydrogen chloride (HCl) in water.
 It is a highly corrosive, strong mineral acid with many industrial
uses. Hydrochloric acid is found naturally in gastric acid.
 As an monoprotic acid and one of the six common strong
mineral acids, it is the least likely to be subject to an oxidation-
reduction reaction.

15. Properties
 It is available in many different concentrations in water, thus
its exact physical properties (boiling point, melting point and
density) vary accordingly.
 The concentrated grade (fuming hydrochloric acid) is about
38% HCl in water.
 Industrial-grade HCl is about 30% to 35%, while the
commercial grade (muriatic acid) is between 20% and 32%.
Household cleaning solutions of HCl are typically 10% to
12%, but these still need further dilution before use.

16. Manufacturing

17. Methods
 Synthesis from elements (Burning Process)
 Organic By-product Synthesis.
 Metallic chlorides with Sulfuric acid.
 Waste Incineration.
 Thermal decomposition of hydrated heavy metals

18. Organic by-product Synthesis
 Hydrochloric acid is made during chlorination of organic products as
follows:
 RH₂+ Cl₂→RCl + HCl
 Hydrochloric acid is also made during fluorination of chlorinated organic
products to manufacture (hydro)chlorofluorocarbons as follows:
 RCl + HF →RF + HCl
 Where RCl stands for chloroform, trichloro ethane, etc and RF
stands for (hydro) chlorofluorocarbons

20. Waste Incineration.
 From incineration of chlorinated organic waste:
C4H6Cl2 + 5O2 → 4CO2 + 2H2O + 2HCl
 After leaving the chlorination process, the HCl-containing gas
stream proceeds to the absorption column, where concentrated
liquid HCl is produced by absorption of HCl vapors into a weak
solution of hydrochloric acid.
 The HCl-free chlorination gases are removed for further
processing. The liquid acid is then either sold or used elsewhere
in the plant. The final gas stream is sent to a scrubber to remove
the remaining HCl prior to venting.